[PD] [1/2 OT] Laptop audio interface choice under Linux

[julien breval]

Thanks for your reply

Selon Davide Morelli <info at davidemorelli.it>:

> Firewire audio cards under linux are supported via "freebob" that is a
> driver for jackd.
> http://freebob.sourceforge.net/index.php/Main_Page
>
> you'll need to compile a lot of stuff by yourself from source (libraw1394,
> libavc1394, libiec61883):
> http://freebob.sourceforge.net/index.php/Compiling_from_SVN_HOWTO

That's good news. I like the Jack approach a lot.

> not every Firewire audiocard is supported, see this page for a list of known
> working devices:
> http://freebob.sourceforge.net/index.php/List_of_Supported_Devices

Unfortunately none of these interfaces looks like the right one for me. The
Presonus Firebox and the Terratec Phase x24 could be ok, but I was rather
looking for something like the RME Fireface 400 - To put it differently, I'm
not sure if these two cards have the same sound quality and reliability as RME
or MOTU ones. If anyone use them, please tell me about the results you get.

> If you go this way stick with Fedora + CCRMA because is the system used by
> freebob developers and you can easily get small latency (2,6 msec).

The main problem is to find a laptop on which the Linux installation won't
freeze after launching x11. On the one I have currently, no distribution could
be installed. I believe I have to add or remove something to x11.conf but there
is very few information about it. In the past I have used Red Hat and CCRMA at
2.6 ms latency (Shuttle XPC) without any problem.

> Be aware that is still somehow experimental.

Does it means, that I may get sound drops and variable reliability ? I need a
simple setup, but as professional as my former Yamaha hardware sampler (1995)
:) This machine had a polyphony of 64 btw, which is quite hard to get on a
laptop (considering that latency has to be inferior to 5 ms)


Regards,
j